


Out of Breath

by buzzbuzz34



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Character Death, Drowning, Gen, Last words, Sinking Coffin Trap, suffocation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22283425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzbuzz34/pseuds/buzzbuzz34
Summary: Moderate spoilers for episode 141!While exploring the tunnels underneath the Shoin Institute, a trap finally works.  Zolf is caught in a sinking coffin trap, and he and Hamid only have the few minutes before he drowns to clear the air between them and catch up on all the things they never got to say.
Relationships: Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan & Zolf Smith
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

“Hamid, can you try to stay focused?”

“I really don’t see the harm in looking at the fish for a moment.”

“Maybe because we’re in a tunnel at the bottom of the ocean that is part of the bad guy’s secret lair?” Zolf grumbled. 

“None of the traps have worked so far,” Hamid rebuked. 

“Uh, some of them have. The ones up top did.” Zolf gestured to the scar in his temple where the spike trap had impaled him, and Hamid looked away sheepishly. 

“I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s fine.”

The silence that fell over the group as they continued to walk down the lengthy, seafloor tunnel was palpable and awkward. Cel and Azu cast glances between them, and even Skraak fell into quietness, save for the clicking of their claws against the ground.

Finally, a door appeared, a break in the monotony. Hamid stepped forward instantly and reached for the handle. 

In the split second before Hamid turned the doorknob, Zolf noticed the mechanism running between the door and a panel on the floor. 

“Hamid!”

Zolf lunged forward and shoved Hamid aside just as the floor hatch flew open, knocking Hamid to safety but sinking into the depths himself. And then the floor slid closed. 

“Zolf! Zolf!?” Hamid screamed, scrabbling at the floor where the hole had opened with dragony claws, but it remained shut. 

Cel gently pushed Hamid aside and knelt beside the hatch, pulling a roll of tools from their coat. “Allow me,” they said, wedging a prybar into the gap. “Hey, Azu, help me with this?” Together, they tried to lever it open, with little success.

Hamid was useless in a situation of brute strength, and his mind was racing with terrible thoughts, so he couldn’t even bring himself to look for a mechanism that might open the hatch again. Instead, he thought of Zolf, and cast message.

“Zolf? Zolf, can you hear me?” He said aloud.

“I don’t think he can,” Azu replied, and Hamid shook his head.

“It’s a spell.”

“Oh.”

Inside his head, Hamid heard a response. “Hamid! Hamid, I’m…”

If he was speaking, he wasn’t drowning, and Hamid sighed in relief. 

“We’re working on getting the hatch open, we’ll get you out. What did you fall into?”

There was a beat of silence. “Have you heard of a sinking coffin trap?”

Hamid’s lip began to quiver. He remembered the one they’d encountered below Damascus, how the floor had given way and Sasha only barely dodged out of the way in time. Without her, none of them had the speed for that, and certainly none of them had the ability to open such a complicated device. 

“Are… are you sure?”

“I’m pretty sure. I can feel it sinking and a bit of water is getting in. Not an airtight model, apparently,” Zolf joked flatly, as if it would make the futile situation any better. 

Hamid turned to Azu and Cel, who had a small jack in the gap they’d managed to pry up to try and open it further. “We have to hurry. It’s a sinking coffin trap.”

Azu froze, and Cel’s eyes opened wide. Neither said anything, but their work on the jack and the prybar increased in pace. 

“Hamid, listen,” Zolf said softly inside Hamid’s head. “I’m… I haven’t heard of anyone getting out of one of these things.”

“Well, you’ll be the first.”

Zolf chuckled. “I just… I’m sorry. For being so brusque, so focused on the mission. I shouldn’t have taken anything out on you, and I have. You’re…”

“Don’t say these things. We’re going to get you out of there and we’re-” Hamid couldn’t finish his sentence as tears began to flow freely and his voice choked up.

“You were always a good friend, Hamid, and I don’t think I ever really told you how much you meant to me. I’m grateful to have known you. And if I’m going to die, I’m glad that I get to go out hearing your voice one last time.”

“Zolf…”

“If anyone can fix the world, I know it’s you. And even if not, well, I’m still proud to have been on this adventure with you, even if only for a little while.”

Zolf’s voice was full of tears too, barely able to muster words, but he pushed them out with what limited air he had left. 

“Zolf, I… I’m sorry. I’m sorry I haven’t been taking this as seriously as you’d like, I’m sorry I get distracted, I’m sorry… I’m sorry we can’t save you.” Hamid sobbed. “And you say you haven’t told me how much I mean to you, well, I still know you care. You’ve shown me in your own way. You’re my best friend, Zolf, and I love you. I’m… it’s hard for me to remember, sometimes, that the suffering of the world has been going on for years, years I didn’t see, but… I’m going to do everything in my power to make it right. For everyone, but especially for you. You deserve at least that much.”

“I know you will.” The smile was audible in Zolf’s voice, even his breaths were louder and raspier as his air supply began to dwindle. “I’m sorry I left in Prague. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when your sister, when Bertie…”

“It’s okay. You had to take care of yourself first. I’m just glad I got to see you again. I didn’t know if our paths would ever cross again, and they did, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.”

“Me too. You know, I’m not scared to die? Not because I know Poseidon or some god is going to take me in the afterlife, but because I know the world is in good hands. And if I’m going to die, it seems fitting that it would be at sea, despite everything.” He wheezed. “Hamid, can you… I’m not sure how much more I’m going to be able to say, the air… but can you just keep talking to me? So I can still hear your voice as I…”

“Of course, Zolf, anything.” 

“Thank you.”

“Do you remember Paris? I mean, I’m sure you do, it was probably some of the worst days of your life, but I remember how you held me in the catacombs when my arm was a mess and I… wasn’t doing well. I know I wouldn’t have gotten past that without you, I wouldn’t even be here, I wouldn’t be anything like the person I am today without you. You gave me a chance to be better than I was, to have hope, and to keep fighting. To believe that I can actually be a good person, even with all the mistakes in my past. Thank you, Zolf, for everything. I only wish… no, it doesn’t matter. I’m just so lucky that I got to know you, and that you were my friend.”

As he spoke, Zolf’s breaths came less frequently, until they finally stopped coming altogether. Hamid continued to speak for a while after that, recalling anecdotes from their time together, like the time in the channel crossing to France, or the time in Le Triomphe when they’d cried on opposite sides of a bedroom door, or the time he’d put himself through reading an entire trashy novel for him, or their parting in Prague, or how relieved and angry Hamid was at seeing him again in Japan, on the other side of a jail cell. He didn’t want to stop speaking, in case Zolf could still hear him, but after a while he knew there was no chance he could still be alive, and Hamid curled up into a ball and let his tears take over. 

He and Zolf had rarely seen eye to eye, but that didn’t mean they weren’t friends and companions against all the horrors they’d seen. To lose him now, like this… it reopened old wounds and created so many new ones, and Hamid didn’t know if he could recover from this. 

And as he cried on the floor, he didn’t care. The mission, Shoin, the corruption taking over the world – it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Zolf was gone again, and this time he wasn’t coming back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cel and Azu have managed to retrieve the sinking coffin trap before it falls too far into the abyss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a lot of people on tumblr asking for the second part, so here we are!

“Hamid? Hamid, we got it.”

But Hamid didn’t hear Cel calling for him, didn’t hear that they and Azu had pried apart the floor, so focused he was on spending Zolf’s last moments with him. 

“Alright, I have a plan,” Cel said, turning back to Azu. “You swim down there with a rope and push it up. I’ll help pull. I’ve got a waterbreathing potion here somewhere…”

“I can’t do that.”

“I’m not strong enough, you need to be the one to push it.”

“I can’t go down there,” Azu insisted, her eyes glassy and wide. “I can’t, I… There’s too much, it’s too close, it’s…”

Cel reached out a hand and put it on Azu’s shoulder before she could continue. “It’s okay. No worries. _I_ will swim down there, tie a rope around the coffin, and you can pull. I’ll turn into a dolphin and push from beneath as best I can. Sound good?”

With a heavy exhale, Azu nodded. “Let’s do it.”

“Skraak?”

There was no way to communicate with the kobold, not while Hamid was incapacitated and unable to translate. Azu held out a hand as if to tell them to sit tight and wait, and they began to pace in place, but it was enough. 

Cel stripped off their jacket and put a new set of goggles over their eyes before dropping through the opening in the hole and descending into the depths. They needn’t have worried about putting on goggles; as deep below the surface as they were, there was hardly any light anyway. 

But there was enough to see a dark chasm beneath the tunnel in which they’d been walking and a slight glimmer from within it. Cel swam toward that shimmer as fast as they could, maintaining their half-elf form for the time being. 

Once they caught up to it, they clung to its side as it continued to descend at a rapid pace so that they could unsling the rope from around their shoulder and wrap it around the metal box as quickly and securely as they could manage. With a hefty knot, Cel allowed themselves to turn into a dolphin and got underneath the box, pushing it up with their nose and hoping that would be enough signal for Azu to start pulling. They hadn’t discussed that much. There wasn’t time.

Soon enough, the weight was slackened on Cel’s end and the coffin propelled upwards, out of the chasm and toward the light of the tunnel. Once it hit the floor, there was little Cel could do without hands to guide the box back through the narrow hatch, but Azu, without her gauntlets, reached into the water and heaved the whole thing through the space with Cel still pushing as best as their dolphin form could. 

Cel transformed back to their usual self and caught their breath once they hauled themselves back to safety, then turned hastily toward the coffin. If it had filled with water, they didn’t have long. And by the way Hamid was sobbing in the corner, they would be lucky if they had any time at all.

Still breathing heavily, Azu and Cel stood to examine the mechanism. The face of the coffin was almost entirely smooth, with nowhere to wedge in a prybar or a jack. There was but one visible opening, at the top, where Zolf had been dropped inside of it, and a small, unobtrusive latch was visible, but stuck fast. 

“I have some acid,” Cel said, rummaging through their coat for a vial. 

“What… how did you…?” Hamid appeared at their side in an instant, his face red and tear stained, but his jaw set as he saw the coffin and Cel’s sopping form. “Never mind. I have acid. Stand back.”

He threw acid splash after acid splash at the latch until it slowly began to wither away, at which point Azu began to chop at it with one of her axes until the metal chipped off and they could wrench the lid open. 

Water poured out of the coffin and they dragged Zolf’s motionless form from the box. Pink light covered his body as Azu laid a hand atop him and muttered a prayer to Aphrodite, her eyes shut tight in despair and desperation. 

Still, he didn’t move.

When faith failed, Azu relied on her mundane medical knowledge and began to administer chest compressions and rescue breaths. Cel watched anxiously, while Hamid paced and began to cry again. At least this way they could lay Zolf’s body to rest, he wouldn’t just be lost to the void. Hamid didn’t even know what Zolf wanted done with his body, if he wanted a burial or a pyre or to be returned to the stone. He’d never wanted to think about it. He’d never _had_ to think about it. 

Hamid was shaken from his thoughts by a fit of coughing. He spun around and Zolf was there, coughing up water, but moving and breathing against all odds. He was _alive_. 

Without thinking, Hamid lunged toward him and tackled him back to the floor in an embrace. 

“Hamid, Hamid, I can’t breathe…” Zolf muttered, laughing, and Hamid released his grip only slightly. “Better.” Despite his complaints, he hugged Hamid back, holding him tight. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Hamid whimpered, his tears matching pace with Zolf’s. 

“Why? You saved me?”

“I didn’t. They did.” He gestured to Cel and Azu, who had slumped backwards in relief and watched the reunion with smiles on their faces. “I was too distraught.”

“Well… thank you,” Zolf said to them, a sincere smile on his face. “I’m… thank you. Maybe I’ll have more eloquent words later, when I’m not still on the edge of death or smothered by a halfling, but… yeah. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Azu replied, and Cel nodded.

“Hey, I got to be a dolphin again. No worries here,” Cel teased. “But seriously, I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too.” Azu added. Even Skraak let out a celebratory squeak. 

Hamid had still not relinquished his grip on Zolf, and they continued to lay there for quite a while in an embrace while Zolf caught his breath and regained his bearings after being so close to death. 

“This doesn’t change anything that I said,” Zolf murmured, still contentedly allowing Hamid to hold him. “You’re still my best friend, and I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you, and… I really was glad that if I was going to die, I’d die hearing your voice. That I wouldn’t be alone.”

“You’re never alone, Zolf,” Hamid said. “But I understand. I’m just… I’m just grateful you’re still here. No more self-sacrificing, you hear me?” 

Zolf chuckled at Hamid’s stern tone and expression. “Bold of you to say. But I’ll do my best.”

“That’s all I can ask.”

“We should probably talk some more under less dire circumstances. I got the most important bits out, but there’s… still a lot to say.”

Hamid nodded. “But for now, once you’re ready, we should probably get back to it.”

“Nothing like a near-death experience to get your heart pumping, eh?”

“Don’t you dare joke about this,” Hamid insisted while grinning. “This was horrible. I’m not losing you, Zolf, I’m not.” He pulled Zolf into another tight embrace, winding his fingers through his hair and burying his face in his shoulder as he let out another sob. 

“What was that you said earlier? You’re never alone?”

“Yeah, but we really don’t need to put that to any further tests, alright?”

“Fair.”

Several minutes later, once Zolf had gotten his breath back, he and Hamid were finally willing to let go of each other, and Azu and Cel had re-equipped themselves, they turned back to the door and examined it more carefully this time. 

“Wait!” Hamid cried. “We’re all drenched. Allow me.”

With a cast of prestidigitation, everyone was dry again. Cel offered a thumbs up in thanks, and, with a smirk, Zolf joked, “You really haven’t changed at all, have you?”

As the group headed down the hallway, Hamid and Zolf’s hands found each other, and they held tight, their hearts echoing the same sentiment as they went off to face nearly certain death once again:

_You’re never alone._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the angst! 
> 
> If you want to find more of my writing and learn about my original projects, head on over to kellanswritingblog.tumblr.com, or feel free to come chat on my personal, celsidebottom.tumblr.com <3


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